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When a football player gets tackled, what helps protect him? (Show helmet and pads.) His football helmet and his pads. Because the player has on a helmet, does that mean that when he is tackled it will not hurt?No, it still may sting but it protects him from serious injury.

What about this? (Show sports drink.) Players will drink a sports drink to keep them hydrated. This is important because they work hard and they sweat a lot. They need liquidsinside them so they will not get dehydrated.

Why would this help them? (Show playbook) This book is full of plays that the players must learn. They must prepare for the game. Not only must they mentally learn the plays, but they trained physically. They have built up muscles that help them. They have learned ways to escape tackles. They have learned skills that help them during the game. They are continuously practicing and perfecting these skills. When they are prepared for the game, it helps protect them from the obstacles they face.

We also have things that help protect us as we run our race.

Like football players have helmets and pads that protect them, we have Jesus. When we rely on Jesus and tell Him the things that are bothering us, He softens the blow for us. He heals our hurts. He never leaves us alone. He gives us comfort. He cares. It does not mean that we will not get “hit” by something, however, it means that we will have Someone to help us when that happens.

Just like football players have sports drinks to help them stay hydrated, we have other Christians to help us. When we gather with them at church or small groups, they help us from getting dry. They help fill us with God things like encouragement from His word and songs about Him. These things are so necessary to keep us filled up.

Football players have playbooks; we, also, have a playbook. But our play book is the ultimate playbook. It is the Bible, God’s word. It helps us prepare. When we read it and when we learn scripture, we are given a weapon to fight against the enemy. We build our spiritual muscles by practicing what God tells us to do in the playbook. We learn skills to deal with everything in life: how to deal with bullies, how to deal with death, how to deal with people that make fun of us, and how to deal with sickness.

If we are going to finish the race, we have to keep our eyes on Jesus. We have to train using the Bible. And we have to depend on our Christian friends to encourage us and to help us.

If we depend on these things and use them, we will not only finish the race but we will finish the race strong.

“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step.” I Corinthians 9:24-26a

Preparation: Cut out three hearts from the paper. On each heart, write one of the phrases “KISS ME” “FRIENDS FOREVER” and “JESUS LOVES YOU.” Cut each heart into 5 pieces and place the set of hearts in an envelope. Make a set for each group of five kids.

Divide the kids into groups of 5. Give each group an envelope.

I want you to open your envelopes and dump the pieces out. Each of you take three pieces.

You are to work together on this puzzle obeying the following rules:

1. You may not talk.

2. You may not take a piece from someone else.

3. If you are unsure where the puzzle piece goes, you may give your piece to someone else to help you.

4. You may not motion for someone to give you their piece. It must be freely given.

(If the kids have a hard time, give them the clue that they are putting together three separate hearts.)

Each of your hearts has a clue to a different type of love. What type of love does the heart “KISS ME” represent? Romantic love. (You may wish to tell them this is called eros.)

What type of love does “FRIENDS FOREVER” represent? Friendship or family love. (Philia)

What type of love does “JESUS LOVES YOU” represent? God’s love. Or an unconditional love. (agape) This kind of love is the type of love that will do what is good for someone else without any regard for itself. You do not even have to like someone to love someone this way. It is loving someone the way that Jesus wants us to love.

Jesus said in Luke 10:27, ” And love your neighbor as yourself. ”

Is He talking about a romantic love? A friendship love? No, He is talking about a love like God loves. We can try to love other people on our own. However, we need God working through us to show this kind of love. We can love others this way because Jesus first loved us.

Comes in a powder. Just add water and watch the powder turn to snow. Even has a “cold” feel to it.

2. Teach an object lesson on forgiveness based on snow.

Bible verse: Though your sins are scarlet, I will make them white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18

How would you describe snow? (Make some snow or bring some in from outside. Let kids play with it as they describe it.)

There is an old hymn that has a line in it that says, “Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” When Jesus washes our sins away, we are left pure and clean like snow.

How does Jesus wash our sins away? We repent. That means that we are sorry for what we have done. We tell Him we are sorry and we make the decision to go “the other way.” In other words, we decide to do things different next time.

Jesus forgives our sin and makes us pure as snow.

3. Play a snowman game.

Supplies: toilet paper, hats and scarves, black paper, tape

Divide kids into teams. Give each team a roll of toilet paper, some winter gear (like a hat and scarf) and a couple pieces of black paper and tape. Race to see who can make a snowman in one minute.

4. Paint snowflakes with pine needles.

Supplies: white paint, pine needles, paper plate, blue paper

Pour the white paint onto the paper plate. Dip the pin needle in the white paint and gently press it on the blue paper.

Glue the marshmallows onto the paper in a snowman shape. Dip the a marshmallow in the white paint and press onto the paper to make snowflakes. Fill in the rest of the face with markers. Draw a hat! Glue on the pretzel sticks to make arms.